The first myth to be dispelled as you enter Crystal Bridges is that it is all some vanity venture, a well-meaning folly rising in the middle of nowhere. Though some of the art comes from Alice Walton's private col­lection (and by all accounts she has highly developed, even exquisite taste), most of it has been acquired specifically for the museum by a curatorial committee initially led by John Wilmerding, the doyen of Amer­ican art. In this regard Crystal Bridges is less like the Louvre or the Uffizi (that is, a hodge-podge of royal collections in which greatness and mediocrity hang side by side) than it is like the National Gallery in London. That collection, founded in 1824, was assembled by a group of curators with an almost metaphysical instinct for excellence, all the more rare in that it required ex­pertise in every arena of European painting from Duc­cio in the thirteenth century to Turner in the nineteenth.

...

The curators have set themselves the difficult task of acquiring works that are at once historically significant and visually beautiful, and they have succeeded on both grounds. In fact it is hard to recall any recent collection, or many older collections, in which the now conservative criterion of beauty is so heroically defended in the face of a cultural main­stream that prefers confrontation and the spurious appearance of "relevance."

Though the museum's mission is the display of American art, rather than contemporary art as such, I am aware of no other collection of the latter that-through a commitment to beauty-makes so eloquent a case for its enduring consequence.

and

At Crystal Bridges Alice Walton has embarked on what may well prove to be one of the most ambitious acts of cultural development in mod­ern times. She has sought to create, and she has succeeded in creating, perhaps the finest single collection of American art in the world, housed in a world class museum.

The Columbus Sympthony Orchestra played Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff last weekend. No doubt they were unaware that Friday was Veteran's Day. Oh, well. Shostakovich did have to put up with a lot from Stalin and his crowd.

Crack--do you know Andrae Crouch? Just wondering; I like his music, and I haven't heard much about him in the last several years.

Freeman--thanks for sharing! Arkansas is one of the few states east of the Rockies that I haven't visited. That's a good reason to make a trip.

Why is it, when we all had private insurance, the liberals forced mandates for cancer screening on us, and now when the Feds are going to pick up the tab, cancer screening is a bad idea? Cancer screening is an good idea for an individual, but bad for a group. A negative result is good for an individual: You're clean, no cancer. But for the group picking up the tab, that was a waste of money. If there is a positive, whether true or not, it will require more tests, and more money. Some of those tests have negative consequences because the tests are invasive, exposing the patient to further damage. If the positive was false, chasing test results to prove it was a false positive can be dangerous and expensive.

But mammograms are expensive. If Insurance companies only charged women for them, then the companies must hike the premiums. If there is a state mandate that everybody pay for mammograms, even men who most usually don't need them, then that hikes insurance premiums, but gets individuals their mammograms. See the liberals were making other people pay. Now that the Government might have to pay, they think screening is not a hot idea. The best revenge is to live a long life.

I'm sure many of you have already seen this - but it is amazing how sometimes Chris Matthews can not stop talking. He is going to be slapped back for a while - maybe a short while but it is interesting nonetheless.

I had a CD of Shostakovich with a composition about death.. it had a haunting repetitive sound like a death march. Music was heavy and beautiful at the same time. I can't locate the CD and don't remember the title or any other searchable info except for something about death. My searches have been futile. Any Shostakovich experts here who can shed light?

Crack, sorry about your cuz. Is there someplace we can hear his music? I grew up (or tried to) with doo-wop. There were some great groups from Pittsburgh that no one has ever hear of. Would love to hear his music.

I like what I have heard of Shostakovich; not any kind of expert. The guys who cut my hair when I lived in San Mateo were Ukrainian emigres, and veterans of the Red Army. They celebrated Victory Day...and the day that Paulus surrendered Sixth Army at Stalingrad... and the day that Leningrad was relieved.